Conservative Party nominates Greg McLean to run in Calgary Centre

Calgary’s only Liberal MP officially has a Conservative Party challenger after members in Calgary Centre chose Greg McLean as their candidate for the 2019 federal election.McLean, management director for Merchant Capital and a former cabinet minister advisor under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was nominated on Saturday at the Kerby Centre.“The next election is in just a few short months, and I’m going to work every day to help show residents of Calgary Centre how an Andrew Scheer Conservative government will help them get ahead, not just get by,” McLean said in a statement.McLean will take on incumbent Kent Hehr, the city’s only sitting Liberal MP, who came under fire after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced in 2017, dating back to his time as an MLA.

Hehr resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet but was not ejected from the Liberal caucus unlike Calgary Skyview MP Darshan Kang, who left to sit as an Independent, after an investigation through the House of Commons human-resources office over allegations he sexually harassed an employee in his federal constituency office.Conservative leader Andrew Sheer said McLean’s win “will ensure Calgary Centre gets the strong representation they deserve.”During his time in Ottawa, McLean worked on the “privatization of portions of Via Rail … CN’s eventual privatization, the transfer of airports to Local Airport Authorities, and the survival (for a time) of Canadian Airlines,” his website reads.“I also mediated an impasse between the federal road safety directorate and the Petroleum Services Association of Canada,” he said.